Oscar Jackson Coffin was a journalist, professor of journalism, 1926-1956, and the first dean of the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina, 1950-1953. The collection includes correspondence, writings, and other items of Oscar Jackson Coffin and family members. The original deposit includes correspondence with friends, colleagues, and former students concerning jobs and newspaper affairs, 1926-1956. Among the correspondents are John Harden, John D. Langston, Holt McPherson, and Roy Parker. Few items pertain to the University of North Carolina directly. Also included are clippings about Randolph County and Asheboro, N.C., especially of Coffin's column, which appeared in the , and, after 1956, personal letters of Coffin's widow, Gertrude Wilson Coffin. The addition of 1995 includes letters, writings, photographs, and other items chiefly relating to Coffin's journalism career. Of note are letters from former students, including a few women journalists, who reported on their career progress, and letters from and photographs of Robert Ruark. Other papers include verses, articles, lectures, and newspaper clippings about and by Coffin. There is a small amount of school materials and writings of Gertrude Wilson Coffin. The addition of 2003 includes letters, writings, photographs and other items relating to Coffin's journalism career, especially while he was editor of the . Also included are family letters, school materials, church materials, financial materials, and photographs relating to Gertrude; her father, J. E. Wilson (Joseph Edward Wilson), a physician, and her mother, Cordelia Mann Wilson, a school teacher, both of Haywood County, N.C.; her sister, Inez Wilson Dixon; and other members of the Mann and Wilson families. Shucks and Nubbins, Greensboro Daily News Raleigh Times
